My heart sank this morning...

[Tortoise_Wrangler]

My hatchling ingested a dog hair, I'm not sure how seeing that I clean her food and her substrate and her terrarium is a no dog zone. It must have been on my hand or floating through the air. My dog has long hair and about 2/3rds of it has passed through, but she's the size of a half dollar and all the experienced people here know there's nothing a vet can do but put the hatchling down if this hair begins to obstruct her digestion. I very lightly pulled on the hair but there was no give, so I stopped so I didn't hurt her intestines. This happened to my cat when I was a kid and our vet walked my mom and I through, basically saying that if we pulled on the string we'd damage her insides. I'm applying the same logic to this situation. I'm also posting this for educational purposes, success or failure people should be exposed to this.

My plan is simple, I'm going to feed her food with high fiber and soaking her a couple times a day. I'll be grinding up agave for her considering how fibrous it is, my adults can barely eat it it's so tough. I'm hoping if it's ground down enough it can help her pass this hair. So far she's eating normally and drinking water normally. I will keep people updated until it passes, which is what in my heart I believe will happen.

Anyone else have something like this happen? Any light you can shine on me?

 

[wellington]

Wishing you good luck. I am confident it will pass. I hope all that want to let their torts roam the floors of their house will learn from this.
You, whotakes care to keep dog and it's hair away from your tort, is having to worry about this now. Can you imagine the torts that are being allowed to roam the floors.
Fingers crossed, keep us posted and thanks for sharing.

 

[Tortoise_Wrangler]

Yeah, that's something I never allow. I wouldn't allow my torts on my carpet even without dogs or cats in the house, they might eat my hair or my wife's long thick Greek hair, that would be a death sentence. Carpet fibers can't be good either.

 

[RussianTortKing]

I wish you luck!!

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

While growing up, we had a very proud tom cat. Neutered, but he was a tough boy all the same. One Christmas he ate a piece of tinsel. We didn't see him eat the tinsel, but we did get to see the "passing". We kids laughed so hard as he ran away from burying his "business" with about 6"-8" of tinsel still coming out and a, yup, smallish "turd" attached to the end. He passed it with no physical damage done, but his ego was certainly dinged by this experience. Well, that, and maybe from our laughter towards him.
I certainly hope, and feel equally confident, all will turn out to be a fun dinner party story you'll enjoy sharing with your friends in years to come. Thanks for the educational story as well, may it serve to educate those more stubborn.

 

[Tortoise_Wrangler]

Ground down agave and a good soak helped it pass. It was still in her track but most of the hair was out so I pulled it out very carefully. She's just fine now.

 

[Gillian M]

Ground down agave and a good soak helped it pass. It was still in her track but most of the hair was out so I pulled it out very carefully. She's just fine now.

Has your tort totally recovered? Hope so.

 

[Tortoise_Wrangler]

Yeah, still eating like a pig, drinking water and running around.

 

[Gillian M]

Yeah, still eating like a pig, drinking water and running around.

Glad to hear that.